Can You Check Out My Brooder?

[Laurajean]

Okay, so I took some advice of others yesterday and made my brooder for the chicks that are due to be shipped tomorrow!

The base is a corrugated plastic "tray" I made it a long time ago as part of my Guinea Pig's cage (She recently passed, rest her little soul, but she will live on through her donation to the chicks). The sides of the tray are about 6 inches high, and the cardboard sits inside it. The plastic is easy to clean, and I lined it with newspaper. (A side note for those who might ask: Despite how many pics I see on here of wood shavings, a "veteran chicken lady" who works at my local feed store insists on newspaper. She says she has seen too many chicks die from ingesting the shavings. I don't know if that's a real danger or not, but I don't want to risk it, so I have newspaper.)

I then cut and taped cardboard for the walls, to prevent my kitties from invading. The top is a home made top (also from Rosie the Guinea Pig's cage) that is made out of two pieces of wire shelving 'hinged' at the center with zip ties. Also, the front end of the cardboard "hinges" on a fold so I can open it like a gate to clean or to catch stubborn chicks, etc.

The heat lamp is holding just over 90 degrees at one end, so that the chicks can move away if they feel too warm.

The overall size is about 2 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet, and 28 inches high. 8 Bantam chicks will be residing in it.

How does it look? Did I forget anything? (I have a food and water thing & a thermometer). Anything I should change? I'm hoping this will be big enough for them to stay in until the big move to the coop.

Thanks for your input! This is my first time with chicks and I am SO nervous and excited!

(First time adding pics too, I hope I did it right)

 

[acid_chipmunk]

No matter what your "veteran" chick lady says, newspaper is not good for new chicks. They can hurt their legs (splay) walking on the slick newspaper. I would cover it with paper towels if you are that worried about them eating shavings. (Just to let you know, I have had 39 chicks so far this year and they have ALL been on shaving since I picked them up and no one had died.) Let them on the paper towels for a few days, then switch them over to shavings.



Other than that, the brooder looks great! With bantams, they should be able to be in there for a while!


Good luck!



ETA:

 

[catdaddy66]

I agree that whole newsprint is too slick to walk on for the younger ones, but after a few days shavings are the best. Paper towels are compostable so don't waste the "green gold"

I also used shredded paper (but not glossy paper as it doesn't break down well) w/ the shavings to stretch the supply some. It works well and have had no issues whatsoever!

 

[Laurajean]

Well, with all due respect to everyone, people are always going to disagree on certain things, bedding choice being one of them. I've already decided against shavings. The chicken lady's 27 years raising chickens is good enough qualifications for me. Regardless, I have asthma and cannot be handling the dusty shavings, so it's out of the question.

Paper towels is a good idea though, and composting them is a great idea! I will lay down paper towels over the paper to give them some traction, but I'm still interesting in hearing if the brooder is big enough, good light placement, growing room, cat resistant, etc.

Thanks guys.

 

[Rockpile99]

Size looks great. Having the heat lamp at one end is perfect, like you said that gives the chicks their choice to be directly under it when they are cold or move to a cooler location if needed. I keep the food and water in the cool end just so that the water doesn't get hot. I don't bother movng the heat lamp up or down to adjust the temp when they have that much room, they'll self adjust to whatever temp suits them.

An idea for your bedding: Yes with asthma defintily stay away from wood shavings while they are in your house, once outside you can switch to whatever. But in the mean time for indoors you can rip some of the newspaper into shreds and then crumple it. This will allow for better asorption and give their little feet some texture for abit of traction.

I've only had two batches of chicks to raise so far, but neither of my cats showed any interest in the chicks after I introduced them. When my cats were resting peacefully i.e. not in play mode, I'd pick up a chick and let them sniff it. I was even able to put a chick on my cats back and let it snuggle in to the warm fur with no problems. That cat is an avid hunter of both mice and wild birds, but she had no interest in hunting, hurting or playing with the chicks, and was very content to let the chick snuggle, it was quite cute. YMMV but I've had no problems with those introductions.

Good luck!

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

First of all

The brooder looks like it will work, however there are some thing that I would suggest...

1) If you have asthma and are that sensitive to dust your brooder needs to be placed in a sealed room from the rest of the house or put outside. The dust from chicks is far, far worse than any dust that you would get from pine bedding. Your whole house is going to be wrapped up in this stuff. I brood chicks in my bedroom study('10x14') that I converted into a incubator/brooder room. When I get through brooding chicks it takes me a good 2 days to get all of the dust out. It's on the ceiling, the walls, the floors, and anything that you have in the room is covered unlike anything you've ever seen.

2) Make sure your heat-lamp isn't too close to the the cardboard edges. Looks a little close to me for comfort. Don't want to start any fires.

3) Don't rely only on the clamp to hold the heat-lamp. There should be a ring/hook on the fixture to tie an additional wire/chain just in case the clamp fails. I also noticed that you have it clamped to the electrical panel box door which is not a good idea IMHO, the door moves.

4)Don't underestimate your cats. A determined cat will tear that thing apart in about 10sec. I have 2 cats but they don't bother the chicks and were taught that they are not allowed in the incubator/brooder room. A few "NO's" and they learned that the room is off limits. I can open the door and they will just sit there and not go in.

Good Luck!!!

EDIT: Seems my fingers have a mind of their own...

 

[Laurajean]

Rockpile99: "...I was even able to put a chick on my cats back and let it snuggle in to the warm fur with no problems..." That's so cute! I have no idea what to expect with my two cats. They've never seen a chick. One of them used to sleep cuddled up with the Guinea Pig, which was sweet, but chicks are smaller, so I'm a little nervous. Thanks for the advice.

Chook-A-Holic: You said: "...The dust from chicks is far, far worse than any dust that you would get from pine bedding...." I'm not sure what you mean. The last time I had chicks was in my childhood, but they were right there in the living room and I don't recall any dust, other than the wood dust. However, it may not bother me. Oddly, wood dust is the worst for me: I can't even walk into a furniture store that sells a lot of unfinished pieces without immediately closing up and having trouble. However, I have two cats that shed and sleep with me, and I have a wood stove that creates a lot of household dust, and none of that bothers me. My brother has asthma too and he can't even be in the same house as a cat. So I think there may be certain triggers for some people, and for me, it seems to be wood dust. Once they are in the coop, I will need to wear a respirator when I clean the coop. It also helps that it will be outside of course.

I appreciate your input about the cats. I stay at home, so I can supervise them. Although I don't know how they are around chicks, they are at least very well trained. All I have to do is snap my fingers, even from another room, and they will immediately stop what they are doing. If I need to be outside or go on an errand, I plan to close the door so they won't be left unattended.

Also, I agree about the light. I'm not thrilled with trusting it to hang onto the panel door either. I'm trying to think of a way to hang it from the loop, but haven't figured out what to hang it from yet. I may need to move it to a whole different spot.

General question for anyone: How often does the bedding need to be changed? I used to use a recycled paper bedding for my Guinea Pig which was very absorbent and worked great but it is VERY expensive. If I don't need to change it often great, but if it constantly needs changing, then that would break the bank.

 

[Tensixdad]

Brooder looks good but I did not see a thermometer listed and I think with a small brooder you will need that to gauge the temp.. you dont want to cook those littler guys.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I'm wondering about the coating on the wire top? I'm thinking it may melt and cause the coating to drip down harming the chicks? Not sure what it's coated with but looks to be some sort of plastic. Otherwise I think it looks pretty good.

 

[MistyValley]

I didn't look back to see how tall the sides were on your brooder but here's what we did. We have tall ladder backed chairs that we clamped the light to then zip tied it too. I like having a chair next to the brooder so I could sit and watch them and it worked great for holding the light.